Making Difficult Tasks Easy

We tend to put off doing jobs we don’t like, that are difficult, or that will take a long time to complete. That makes those duties even harder. Most of us worry about those jobs we need to do. The longer we wait, the harder it gets to start difficult jobs. It is far better to do hard jobs as early as you can. Don’t put them off too long because you will probably then be short of time to do them well. You may not have estimated the time required to complete the assignment. Unforeseen problems may appear that were not there in the first place. If the job requires a lot of time, divide up the expected time into small increments. Don’t then start doing a little bit and then forget about the balance you need to do to complete the job. Establish a firm schedule to do some of the job daily, weekly, or whatever seems reasonable to complete the assignment. Train yourself to avoid any interruptions during the scheduled time. Stick to the schedule. Many jobs require gathering data or information. For example, suppose you are assigned to buy a certain product you know nothing about. You don’t know what the  product is for. You don’t know who sells it. You don’t have any idea what specifications are required. When this is the case, try getting some of the information with suppliers or online sources. You can then be working on getting other information at the same time while waiting to hear back from suppliers. Follow up with suppliers if you don’t get an answer within a reasonable time. When you know how to proceed with an assignment, don’t be timid about asking for help. Ask for suggestions about how you should proceed. If you are not sure about
what is wanted in the assignment, don’t wait too long to get clarification. Sometimes your boss or whoever gave you the assignment was not clear in their own mind what they really wanted. Your question for clarification may force them to think about the assignment. They will then either clear up the vagueness of the request or sometimes simply cancel the request altogether.